ROCKFORD — If the Rockford Rescue Mission is a bellwether to gauge the city’s hunger plight, then it’s safe to say there’s a growing population of hungry residents here.

“Hunger within our community has become a serious issue and is more prevalent than one would imagine,” said the mission’s Executive Director Sherry Pitney.

Among the growing numbers of people who find their way routinely, if not daily, to 715 W. State St. are people with jobs and housing but who come up short in daily meals.

Pitney said the local economy is partly to blame.

“The job numbers are still very low. Even if you do find a job, it’s hard to find one that covers the rent and puts three meals on the table every day.”

The mission’s 2013 fiscal year ended Sept. 30, and data compiled by the religious-based nonprofit showed the mission provided 58,767 nights of lodging in FY 2013, up 1.7 percent from 57,796 in FY 2012.

Coinciding with the increased number of overnight stays is a 5.4 percent increase in the average number of daily meals served at the mission, 450 in FY 2013 up from 427 in FY 2012.

A growing need for men and children drove those numbers. In FY 2013, 9,781 meals were served to children, up from 8,376 in FY 2012, a 16.8 percent increase; and the number of meals served to men jumped from 104,154 to 109,188, a 4.8 percent increase.

Hunger in Rockford and Winnebago County is not an isolated issue.

According to the “Map the Meal Gap 2013” study released by Feeding America in June, more than 10 percent of the people living in 13 northern Illinois counties were expected to face hunger sometime this year. The study also said Winnebago County has 48,010 “food insecure individuals,” 50 percent of whom are below the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or food stamp threshold of 130 percent poverty.

Of the 164,455 free breakfast, lunch and dinner meals served at the mission, 68 percent were served to homeless and impoverished individuals and families in the community while 28 percent of the mission’s meals were served to individuals enrolled in the mission’s recovery programs.

As for the number of meals served to women at the mission — 38,685 in FY 2012 and 38,526 in FY 2013 — Pitney said those numbers remained stable because the lodging numbers for women remained the same, and the lodging numbers remained unchanged because the mission’s 48-bed women’s shelter on Cedar Street remains at capacity.

“We’re turning people away,” she said.

More than 60 women in need of lodging were turned away in August and September.

Pitney said that is not the case when it comes to feeding the hungry.

“We cannot, and do not turn away individuals when they come to the mission for food.”